Shatterworld: Original Campaign Setting

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Ouroboros of Kronos, God of Time

It is said that for each of the elements there are creatures to whom such element is the root of their essence. That is, they can pass through said element with no harm, and little impedance. Such is Earth to the Kobold or Dwarf they say, or Fire to the Salamander or Mandragora. Likewise is Water to the Naiads and the Merfolk, and Air to the Sylphs.

Thus it is that there are they say, attuned to Time itself, creatures on whom the Arrow of Time has no authority. Among such creatures are the Elf, and the Bogey. Hither and yon to they flit and dart, with tomorrow being no more or less a part of their future than yesterday. Even is told of a select few who live their very lives inversely to our own, growing younger each day, and having memories of tomorrow.

Pondering such temporal gymnastics is a troubling feat, as the very nature of "cause" and "effect" come into question. Many a paradox can arise when exploring the depths of such possibilities, and peering too deeply into such matter has been known to cause madness in men of lesser minds.

Tradition holds that in the earliest days of the Earth, that Time itself was used as a weapon. Things which were made could be unmade, and History itself could unravel and be re-braided in this manner or that. A man's very existence could be torn asunder were he to travel back in Time and undo the events leading to his own birth. For if he were never born, he could not undo his birth; yet if he did not undo his birth, he would live to attempt such a feat. Power was derived from traveling ever further back in the Stream of Time, attempting to undo what was done, un-make what was made, and re-forge Creation into a new direction.

For this reason, it is said, was the Ouroboros forged by Kronos. It is by virtue of the Ouroboros that the past can not be unwritten. What was (since the time of the forging of the Ouroboros) shall always be What Was.

This presents interesting issues when considering the future. If there are those who live their days inversely as we described, such that they have not yet been born, and others who consider tomorrow to be interchangeable with yesterday, does this mean that the future is firm and unalterable? For if the past is unalterable, are not the days we live in themselves "the past" through the eyes of some denizen of the future? Is the gift of Kronos, the Ouroboros, also a curse? Something that chains us to sequences events that we are powerless to alter?

I tremble to delve too deeply into the historical tomes of Calabria, for fear that I may stumble across records left behind from some traveler through the Streams of Time, and discover what fate may lie in wait for my fellow countrymen and I. What utter despair to know of a future which you are impotent to avoid!

Yet what greater horrors might be unleashed, were the Ouroboros itself to be torn asunder!